


on a cold trail

by penhaligon



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Established Relationship, F/F, HZD Secret Santa 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21745339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penhaligon/pseuds/penhaligon
Summary: Aloy brings a few friends along with her to the Cut.
Relationships: Aloy & Varl (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Aloy/Vala (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Vala & Varl (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43
Collections: HZD Secret Santa 2019





	on a cold trail

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Serie11](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/gifts).



> For the request: Aloy/Vala + Varl in the Cut, during and after DLC events, with The Frozen Wilds set post-game because it flows better there.

It's in the quiet after the fanfare has died down that Aloy seeks out the children of the War-Chief in Mother's Heart. The lodges there are even more crowded with those who had lost their homes in the Eclipse attack, and the warm abundance of too many people itches uncomfortably against Aloy's skin. Vala doesn't hesitate to suggest that they talk outside, and soon she, Varl, and Aloy stand on the cliff's edges that border the settlement, with only firelight and starlight for company.

It's been nearly two months since Aloy has seen them. She'd stayed behind in Meridian to help with the recovery effort, until those Nora too injured to travel had been well enough to make the journey back, and even then, the trip had been slow going. But though the injured Nora are safely returned to the Embrace, and there is no shortage of things that need doing here in the Sacred Land, Aloy's skin itches with impatience too. With an urgency not at all settled by the defeat of HADES.

"You've got that look in your eyes," Vala says.

Aloy rests a hand on her hip, looking out at the blue-green shadows of the valley below, the flecks of orange firelight in the dark. Just below them, a river rushes, an unchanging murmur, and the distant shadow of All-Mother Mountain and dead Metal Devil limbs are sketched out by the pale moonlight rising beyond Mother's Heart. "I'm not done," Aloy says. Far from it -- she has the sinking feeling that her real problems are only just beginning. She looks back at Vala, at Varl. "With what... All-Mother," she tries not to grimace, "wants me to do. I'm going to the Cut next."

"Banuk land?" Varl asks. He stands with his arms folded, next to Vala, who leans against one of the support beams of their lodge. "What does the Goddess want there?"

"I don't know yet," Aloy says. "But I think it might be related to... everything. To HADES." Vala frowns, and Varl shifts uneasily. "Apparently, the machines are acting... _strange_ there."

Varl's eyes widen with realization. "Like the corrupted ones?"

Aloy nods. "So I need to go and see for myself. But..." she hesitates, and though she waits, the words don't come.

"Need some help?" Vala asks knowingly.

Aloy lets out a breath. "I think," she says, "it's the smarter way. It was all of us who defeated HADES, and I have a bad feeling about whatever's in the Cut." She looks between both of them, and her voice takes on a hesitance. "And maybe I could... share some of what I've learned, while we're there. There's... a lot more to the world than most people know." As far as she knows, it's only her and Sylens, and Sylens hasn't said a word or answered since he left. It leaves her alone in a way that Aloy doesn't like, in no small part because it's Sylens, of all people, getting under her skin like that -- or rather, getting out from under her skin with an abruptness that had startled her.

Vala and Varl exchange a glance, some kind of wordless communication passing between them, and Aloy wonders what it would have been like, to grow up with siblings. There's an eagerness in Vala's eyes, and a hesitation in Varl's, and Vala turns back to Aloy with a nod.

"Let's hope your Seeker blessing still works on us, yeah?" Vala says, and Aloy gives her a grateful smile. Vala smiles back, and it makes something flutter in Aloy's stomach. It's been a while since they've seen each other, and yet Vala doesn't seem to mind, that Aloy comes and goes and probably doesn't make for the best partner. Vala smiles like those months don't even exist.

"I don't--" Varl says, and he falls silent when Vala rounds on him again, though she only raises an expectant eyebrow. "I don't know," Varl continues, shifting on his feet. "There's so much to be done here. But..." he lets loose a breath as Vala stares him down, "if you need help, Aloy, I'll gladly come."

"If you'd rather stay," Aloy says, because she knows that leaving the Sacred Land again isn't really the issue, "you can."

Varl hesitates, and Vala wastes no time in interjecting. "The Sacred Land will be fine," she says. She speaks with an absolute certainty that stands in contrast to the quiet uncertainty that's played home in her brother since the Eclipse attack. "Come _on_. If the Goddess didn't want this for us, then it wouldn't be happening. Right, Aloy?"

"Right," Aloy says, wincing a little. She's gotten the sense that Vala isn't so bothered by the idea that what she knows is only a shadow of greater and more dire things, but Varl is uneasy with what he already glimpses of the truth.

Varl is silent for a long moment, and then his face and his shoulders set, as he looks between Vala and Aloy. "Well," he says, "I have to look after my little sister, I suppose."

Vala raps her knuckles against his arm as she steps forward, as if already eager to be off. "Other way around, you boar-head. Now," she says, and Varl grimaces like he already knows what she's about to say, "we just have to talk to Mother."

* * *

In the Cut, there are daemonic machines, and a shaman who speaks of a Spirit, and Vala can tell that Aloy smolders with impatience at the thought of having to win a chieftainship first. Varl is antsy too, and Vala thinks it's less from the delay and more from Ourea's words. But a wonder as quiet as snowfall settles over them when a tallneck gets its feet under it, when it shakes the ground and the icy air with its steps, an awe that stills even Aloy. They stare after the tallneck as it disappears into the whirling haze of snowfall, silent until the machine is a gray shadow in the white.

"That was..." Vala says, and even her words, usually as surefooted as her feet, falter. Worth a harrowing tussle with a scorcher, for one thing, and her gaze automatically shifts to Varl and the bandages hidden away under his furs, though he keeps insisting that he's fine.

"Yeah," Aloy says, rolling her shoulders and looking none too happy about the growing snowfall. "Now I've gotta climb it."

"What?" Varl asks incredulously, as a grin slips across Aloy's face like the shadow of a bird in flight, and then Varl seems to reconsider. "I shouldn't be surprised."

"Make it a competition?" Vala asks, because there's no way that she's _not_.

Aloy hesitates only for a second. "There's not much room on the neck for two." Then she smiles again. "But we can see who's fastest."

Varl takes half a step back and raises his hands, as if in surrender. "I'll count."

Aloy wins her round, but it's only by a margin, and she reminds Vala that she's done this many a time. But there's no shame in a competition lost, as long as the going is fair, and Vala listens as Aloy explains that tallnecks give her maps when she uses her spear to override them. She certainly has little trouble finding her way to the bandit camp at Stone Yield that the Banuk in Song's Edge direct them to, and the fight there is a little more somber, a little more bloody.

The difference between battling machines and battling humans is starkly apparent here in the bleak frozen wastes. Vala hadn't been old enough to witness any of the Red Raids, but Sona rarely speaks of that time for a reason, and the ugliness that the Eclipse had brought into the Sacred Land is still fresh in Vala's mind. She's hardly known a time when the machines haven't been angry, either, but Aloy had told her that they aren't meant to be that way, and that's easy to see from the cover of underbrush, from the way they placidly go about their daily routines. There's little that's personal in taking down a machine, but carving through the camp leaves an uncomfortable weight in Vala's stomach.

It bothers Varl more than it bothers Vala, and she keeps an eye on him when at last the bandit leader falls with one of her arrows planted in his neck. She has an eye on Aloy too, but Aloy is so utterly focused on the task at hand that it's harder to get a read on her. As the freed prisoners thank them and promise to sing of their deeds here, Aloy takes a moment to get her breath, her thoughts clearly far away.

"That should be enough," she says, and between the tallneck, the bandits, and the couple of strange control towers they've taken down in the interim, Vala agrees.

Challenging Aratak takes an unexpected turn, and this time, it's as if Vala can feel a little more hatred, something almost human-like, in the frostclaws that derail the third challenge. By the time she and Varl and Ourea get there, the creatures are almost dead anyway, at Aloy and Aratak's hands, but they don't go down easy. Vala wonders if she's only imagining it, the way the machines seem worse in a way that's hard to describe, but when she mentions it to Aloy later, that look appears in Aloy's eyes again.

"Yeah," Aloy says, and her voice sounds far away, like she's suspects something that she's not telling them. Vala wishes that she would open up a little more, but ever since they'd met the night before the Proving, it's always taken a little work to crack Aloy open. But Vala is patient, and the fact that Aloy is interested in her and willing to reciprocate feels like such a difference from those many months ago, from the girl who'd welcomed her friendship and yet perpetually disappeared into other corners of the world. "I felt it too."

"These machines are angrier," Ourea agrees quietly, and if anyone other than Aloy would know, Vala supposes, it's a Banuk shaman.

Thunder's Drum is a fight and a half, and it's a wonder that they make it out intact. Ourea almost doesn't, when she takes it upon herself to override the core before anyone else can, but as Aloy later explains, the core had taken so much damage in the fight against the fireclaw that its defenses hadn't been at capacity and had fallen quicker than they would have otherwise.

And it's in the retreat in the northwestern mountains that Vala lays eyes on the most extraordinary thing she'd ever seen. They'd gotten brief glimpses of CYAN in Thunder's Drum, but here, in all of her unfettered glory, Vala is breathless. CYAN takes a break in worrying over Ourea to greet them, her strange voice emanating from the many-colored orb of light that fills the room and shines off of the walls, and Vala has no idea what to say. Varl's eyes are wide, his body as still as fallen snow, but Aloy steps forward and talks to CYAN like she's just another person and not a Spirit unlike anything Vala has seen before.

It's when Aratak and Ourea start arguing in whispers over the wisdom of Ourea recuperating here rather than in Song's Edge that the spell breaks. The sound of it is so familiar that Vala grins, and even though she's always been one to prefer the company of a tribe, she gets why Ourea would rather be here, in the presence of such a being. Even stern-faced Aratak seems a little awe-struck.

"You are from a different tribe than the Banuk," CYAN says, addressing the three Nora present. "Is that correct?"

"Yes," Vala says, and Aloy glances at her in surprise. But she smiles a quick, approving smile, and Vala likes to see it, so she steps forward, and Aloy steps back. "We're Nora. We come from the Sacred Land, south of here. And you..." she pauses, thinking, "are you a spirit of the Banuk? Of this land?"

"My task is to oversee this land," CYAN says, and Vala thinks it might be slower than usual, though it's hard to tell when her voice is so strange. "As the Banuk have settled here, and as I have befriended Ourea, it is logical to refer to me as a spirit of the Banuk as well."

Vala takes a moment to absorb the words. "Are there... other spirits like you?"

"My kind is... uncommon," CYAN says, and the pause is a little more obvious. "But yes. The Daemon was one such spirit, and I believe you have encountered another."

There's something wary in Varl's eyes, and when he asks to stay behind for a few moments to talk to Ourea, after Aratak indicates that he wants to leave his sister to some rest, Vala knows why. She's been paying attention, and it doesn't take much observing to notice how Aloy had been able to make her way here to this retreat and to Thunder Drum's in much the same way that she'd opened the heart of the Mountain -- with some strange connection to locked doors and spirits and devils and machines.

When Vala asks, outside the retreat and looking out from its dizzying heights at the blinding white of the Cut below, Aloy hesitates. Her eyes are wide, and she looks vaguely caught, but Vala and Aratak both watch her, and so she tells them, haltingly, that CYAN and the Goddess are the same kind of being, and so are HADES and HEPHAESTUS. That the Blue Light in the machines is related, somehow, and that something is wrong and getting worse.

Vala tries to summon up some greater shock at the idea, at the growing understanding that All-Mother is not what they think, but all she feels is the sense of things slotting into place. As if she'd known all along, between Aloy's mysterious coming and going and all that had happened within the heart of the Mountain and at Meridian and now here, in the Cut. It's not like the Goddess doesn't exist. She's just... different, from what Vala imagined, if she's anything like CYAN.

"It seems our beliefs share a common thread," Aratak says, his brows furrowed and his voice troubled. "If one of these spirits attacked the Sundom as well, what does this mean for the future?"

"I don't know yet," Aloy says, and that steely look is back in her eyes. "But I'm going to find out."

"I can't speak for all of the Nora," Vala adds, in a sudden burst of feeling, because Aloy is right -- it's wiser to work within the safety and strength of numbers, "but my mother is our War-Chief. Whatever comes, our people can face it together."

Aratak nods, and there is genuine regard in his eyes, a far cry from the cool indifference with which he'd first greeted them. "You fought well, all of you," he says. "I had heard that the Nora were fierce, but it was a sight to see for myself. I would be glad to fight alongside you again." To Vala's surprise, there is something rather like a smile on his face -- an odd sight, but not an unwelcome one. "You could practically be Banuk."

* * *

"You wish to ask me spiritual advice," Ourea says, and it isn't a question.

Varl nods, and his eyes flick to CYAN. He stands in the main room of the retreat still, exactly where he'd been when they'd entered, staring at the massive orb of light before him and watching its light dance on the walls. He doesn't think he can move his feet just yet. Not until he asks a question. "You, and..."

"I am available to answer any questions you may have, to the best of my ability," CYAN says. Her voice is strange and mechanical, but soft and sweet too. Varl doesn't know whether to be uneasy or not, but nothing about her sets his hairs on end, like HADES and HEPHAESTUS had. It's just... everything else. The things he's noticed about Aloy and everything she gets herself into, the things he perhaps he doesn't want to tackle just yet.

Ourea gets up from her bedroll. She leans on a walking stick, her skin closer to the pallor of ice than any human color, but she moves steadily as she comes to stand beside Varl. "As am I," she says. "But something tells me that you have questions that neither of us can answer."

Varl nods again. "I just... want to know something," he says, and he swallows. "... CYAN, you're a part of the Blue Light, right?"

CYAN doesn't answer in the swift way he's already come to associate with her responses. "Yes," she says, and though nothing changes in the cadence of her voice or the way her light pulses when she speaks, Varl gets the sense that there's more she's not saying.

He doesn't quite manage to look Ourea in the eye. It's like his gaze can't settle, but Ourea has eyes mostly for the light before them anyway, and she's surprisingly easy to talk to for someone who apparently shuns the company of others. "Do you think that's it, then?" he asks. "The Banuk are right, and we aren't? Are we wrong about All-Mother?"

Understanding crosses Ourea's face, and her eyes soften as she throws a glance his way. "I don't believe that is necessarily the case," she says. "There are many ways to interpret phenomena in this world. Our Blue Light is but one. I know your people view the machines very differently than we do, but... it may be that we are looking at the same thing and seeing it differently."

"I agree," CYAN says, and the smile that Ourea sends her way is gentle and fond. "Your perspective is distinct. That does not mean that it is entirely incorrect."

Varl doesn't say anything for a while. He already knows that the machines aren't what they seem. The ones that Aloy takes control of are nothing like the deranged machines, and they don't seem to fit the Nora's stories of the Old Ones, either. Aloy takes control in a way that echoes how she entered in the Mountain, and the implications of that are staggering. But despite that, despite how the thought rocks him to his core, a knot of worry unravels in his chest somewhat, and the more he looks at CYAN, the more it unwinds. She's wondrous, he thinks, and he understands why Ourea fought so hard to get her back, why she was willing to risk her life to do so.

"Thank you," he says. "That's... all I wanted to ask."

"Perhaps, in time, you and Aloy and Vala could tell me about the Sacred Land," CYAN says, her light brightening into warmer colors. "I would like to learn more about the world outside of the Cut."

Varl smiles. "We'll be back," he says, because he knows Aloy, and he knows that she's itching to talk to CYAN alone. The rest of his questions are for her, because she's the one who walked into the Mountain and came out changed, and Varl doesn't know if he's quite ready to change in the same way. Not yet, at least. But the thought is no longer quite so unsettling. "It's been an honor talking to you, CYAN. And you, Ourea. I'm glad you're alright."

Ourea returns the smile, and it surprises him, because he doesn't think that he's seen one on her face since they met. She inclines her head to him, though her eyes are, as always, drawn back to CYAN. "Come back any time you wish."

* * *

They sleep at Stone Yield, at the settlement that was once a bandit camp. The last of the fireclaws released from Thunder's Drum are dead, and Stone Yield had been the closest place to shelter from the incoming storm. The Banuk who moved in have made progress stripping away the remnants of the bandits, and it's a Banuk tent in which Vala and Aloy huddle together, next to the one in which Varl and Aratak shelter.

The expert construction of the tent keeps out much of the cold and wind and snow, but a chill still lingers in the air, and the wind still roars incessantly in a muffled rush. Aloy rests on her back, staring up at the ceiling, and Vala curls into Aloy's side, but no matter how close she gets, she can't quite get warm in the way she wants to be.

"So," Vala says, shifting her head to take in the profile of Aloy's face just visible in the dark, "what now?"

Aloy's frown is deep and apparent even from the side. "I... don't know," she says and seems perturbed by the admission. She grows tense in Vala's hold. "That was the only lead I had, but... I don't know where to start looking for HEPHAESTUS again."

"You don't have to go looking for him _now_ ," Vala says.

Aloy continues to frown up at the ceiling. "The world's still ending, Vala," she says quietly. "Just slowly." And Vala doesn't like the look that comes over her face, the deep distress there. She doesn't think she's ever seen that kind of look on Aloy, except maybe right after the Proving, but it seems like parts of Aloy are thawing out, revealing more and more. "... The Goddess, she-- she died, before I was born," Aloy murmurs, like the words are stumbling out before she can reel them back in, and _there's_ the shock that Vala had been expecting to feel, plummeting into the depths of her stomach like it's determined to carve a hole there. "It's _why_ I was born. If I don't find a way to bring her back, we're all in trouble."

Vala blinks, her eyes on the outline of Aloy's face, and tries to reorient herself. The hole in her stomach twists. "So the Matriarchs have been praying to nothing for twenty years?"

Aloy's head shifts slightly in Vala's direction, and her grimace is apologetic. She nods.

It's-- well, Vala doesn't know how to wrap her head around that, and Varl is going to have a harder time with it when they break the news to him. Vala can't even imagine trying to explain it to their mother, let alone to the rest of the Nora, and she gets it, then, why Aloy has been evasive. Vala can find no words, and she tries to figure out just what it means for the Nora, that All-Mother has not been watching over them for two decades.

Though perhaps that explains much -- the machines, the Red Raids, the Eclipse. And that revelation helps to steady her insides, because if that's the case, then she no longer has to wonder why so much suffering was visited upon the Sacred Land.

Aloy continues to stare at the stitching above like the tent's ceiling can give her answers, and the rest of her words catch up to Vala with another jolt. If Aloy is supposed to bring the Goddess back, then maybe it doesn't have to mean anything for the Nora just yet. Only for those burdened with the knowledge, and again, Vala comes to a deeper understanding of why Aloy often avoids saying anything at all.

It's a worthy cause, shouldering that knowledge and restoring their Goddess, and all of a sudden, Vala understands what it means to her, at least. She'll see this through to the end, at Aloy's side. They'll stop the end of the world a second time.

But Aloy is tense and distracted in her hold, and Vala stands by what she said before -- they don't have to do so right this instant. She hadn't meant to get Aloy riled up again, but Aloy's mind is a thing of single-mindedness. It reminds Vala of Sona in some ways, and she figures that she knows how to get Aloy to cede ground -- simple rationality. "Is the world going to end in the next week?"

Aloy returns from wherever she'd been in her own head and sends her frown in Vala's direction. "I-- no," she says. "But--"

"No buts," Vala says. "When was the last time you took a break from all of this? Don't answer that," she adds, when Aloy opens her mouth to speak. "What if we just... spent a little more time here? We could find things to do, and I don't think the Banuk know how to relax, so I'm sure whatever we find will be adventurous enough for you. I think we could all use a break. I know I could." There have been enough revelations lately, enough tussles with machines and spirits who possess ill intent to rival any human.

Aloy looks more frustrated than contemplative, but she doesn't argue or try to deflect. She simply listens.

"You've got to pace yourself," Vala adds. "That's how you hunt."

She can feel Aloy give in, her body losing some of the tension quivering in Vala's grip. Vala doesn't know if it's because _she's_ asking, or if it's because her argument had been sound, but she smiles in victory when Aloy lets out a breath from between her teeth. "Fine," Aloy says, and Vala wraps her arms around her a little more tightly, in encouragement and shared warmth. "A week or so." She frowns again. "Sorry for... well, everything. It's a lot. Are you okay?"

"That's an understatement," Vala says. "But yeah. And I'm glad you told me. You know you can tell us anything, right?"

Aloy offers a dry laugh, but Vala knows that she's taking the words to heart, because she doesn't tense up or pull away. "I don't even know where to start, but..." Aloy shifts her head to look at Vala more fully, her eyes pensive, but no longer quite so guarded, "I think the three of us should have a talk tomorrow."

* * *

Vala is right in her assessment -- the Banuk have little concept of relaxing, which is why they find themselves battling a vicious rockbreaker and seeking to prove a Banuk man innocent of a crime he didn't commit, among other things. Aloy doesn't want to admit it, because Vala gets that triumphant smirk on her face when Aloy broaches the subject, but there's something freeing about traveling the Cut looking for problems to solve that aren't the end of the world. With a little time to think of other things and get her mind off of the enormous task before her, the task in question becomes a little less overwhelming.

She ruminates on it often, even though she knows that Vala would rather that she not, and yet her thoughts don't feel so consumed with it when Varga gasps in delight over the Forgefire that they return to her in Longnotch. That one goes to Vala after it's new and improved, because it had been one of her arrows that had finally knocked Ohlgrund off of his feet for good, and Varga is a little peculiar about her weapons.

"You took 'im down," Varga says, grinning broadly as she presents the weapon to Vala. "So she's yours by right. Your hands are a much better place for her than a bandit's. She's a Varga original, and I haven't tested these improved designs yet, so take good care of her!"

Vala cradles the Forgefire with a reverence that clearly makes Varga proud. "I will."

After some deliberation, Varga gives the Icerail to Varl. "This one suits you better," she says. "She's a chieftain's weapon. I don't know if you've got dreams as big as that, but see how she's already comfortable in your grip? I think you're a good match."

Varl's eyebrows arch for the sky, but a pleased smile lingers at the corners of his mouth. "If you say so."

The Stormslinger goes to Aloy next. "A shaman's weapon," Varga says. "I think you already know why you're a good fit. I've never seen anyone take down machines like you do!"

Aloy smiles. The weapon is heavier in her grip than a spear or bow, but she can feel the power inherent within it. Maybe even enough to rival a stormbird, though its weight and kick will take some getting used to. "Thanks, Varga," she says. "These are fine work."

The corners of Varga's eyes crinkle as she gives them a big grin. "I should be thanking _you_ ," she says. "I don't even remember the last time I had this much fun! Like I said, these haven't been tested yet, so if you need any maintenance, come find me!"

The Forgefire turns out to be a boon against some particularly nasty snapmaws that they find in Greycatch and Deep Din, on a mission to discover why the Din has flooded so that Laulai can return. In Greycatch, a Oseram man named Gildun thanks them profusely for saving his life and talks way, way too much, but Aloy starts to find it strangely endearing, particularly when Vala gets to chatting with him. Between the four of them, it's short work to solve the problem of the flood, and Aloy and Varl exchange many a glance and shake of head as Gildun launches from story to story with abandon, in a manner that only Vala seems capable of keeping up with.

"I'm sorry about your mirror, Gildun," Vala says, when at last the waters recede and the controls are back online.

"Oh, I've already forgotten about it," Gildun says, a little too cheery, but his voice warms, genuine and excited, as he continues. "I think I found something better, wouldn't you agree? A magnificent delve with such capable comrades, and a meeting with a real, live master of the arts of the Old Ones!" He claps Aloy on the back, sending her reeling, and Varl steadies her with a faint grin. "Do you _know_ that you are a wonder, girl?"

"I tell her that all the time," Vala says, with a grin to match Varl's.

"And you!" Gildun says, gesturing wildly to Vala and Varl. "Such fearless battle prowess in the face of the snapping jaws of death, such reckless leaping about." He clenches his fists dramatically. "What a tale this will make for the people of Song's Edge!"

Aloy smiles too, because there's something infectious about him, about standing here with Vala and Varl and avoiding eye contact with them so they don't all start giggling. "I hope you remember to include your part in it," she says. "We all did it together."

Gildun looks a little misty-eyed at that. "Huh," he says. "I suppose we did." He clasps each of them by the shoulder vigorously once more, threatening to send them all careening off-balance. "And a story is best told by all who encountered it. Come and find me in Song's Edge, won't you?"

The fight at the Din is a little more tense and close, in a way that sets Aloy's heart to pounding furiously in her ears. But Vala makes a narrow escape, with Aloy and Varl working in tandem to cover her, and after the snapmaws are dead, Vala stares down at the Forgefire now bent out of shape, aghast.

"You're off to a good start," Varl says sagely, nodding at the weapon. He hovers close to Vala, like another snapmaw could leap out of the trees at any moment.

"Better this than my arm," Vala says, flicking a rude gesture in his direction, but she regards the weapon sadly.

Aloy rests a hand on her shoulder and leaves it there, if only to reassure herself that Vala is indeed alright. "Varga can fix it."

"I know," Vala says with a sigh. "It's just a little embarrassing."

They don't make the journey back to Longnotch right away, after Laulai thanks them and plays them a clanging song. They're on their way north, to the farthest reaches of the Cut past the Shaman's Path, to seek out a place where a shaman named Kamut had told them they could find materials to improve Aloy's spear. In the hangar, it's Varl's turn to narrowly avoid being mauled, and the stalker leaves deep scratches in the Icerail's sac, prompting Vala to laugh and laugh after the fight is over and she's made sure that her brother is okay.

"You've made your point," Varl says wearily, and he shakes his head at Aloy's grin as he looks the Icerail over. "If this was my regular spear, I could fix it easily. But..."

"Yeah," Aloy says, trading her grin for a frown. She's sure that she could figure out how to make serviceable repairs, given time and tools, but weapons beyond the most basic aren't her thing, and these are elaborate and elegant in a way that only a master can manipulate easily. Better to let Varga handle it, for now. "Maybe we should get lessons from Varga when we go back."

They make a detour to Keener's Rock first for shelter, when the wind picks up and the snow starts to obscure all paths, and there, they learn of an initiation test for the White Teeth werak from which two hopefuls haven't returned. When no one seems inclined to go after them, Aloy strikes out instead, and neither Vala nor Varl complain. It's not an easy trek, with the snow falling in earnest now, but Banuk clothing and Aloy's Focus get them to the glacier intact, where they find one of the hunters, a woman named Ikrie.

It's yet another fight with angry hordes of machines, and when it's over, Aloy can only watch as Ikrie offers what Mailen refuses to accept. No amount of Aloy snapping at Mailen to let her finish splinting her leg can help the rift between them, and it's to no avail when Vala passionately tries to protest. For all that the Banuk and the Nora share some values, on this, they diverge completely. The Nora survive only _because_ they work together and take care of each other, putting community before pride, and even Aloy, who grew up on their fringes, has a hard time grasping what makes Mailen walk away so coldly.

"I'm... sorry," Varl says hesitantly, in the shocked silence that follows.

Ikrie is only resigned, mastering whatever grief churns within as she turns to them. "You are kind," she says, dipping her head to each of them as her voice shakes. "Kinder than the Banuk with our many grudges. I thank you for your help." She sighs, a trembling sound. "Now... I must go my own way. I don't belong with them, who left her to die. And I don't belong--"

The way she cuts herself off is painful to hear, and Aloy doesn't know what exactly moves her to speak next, but the words come tumbling out with no forethought or hesitation. "If you don't have anywhere else to go," she says, surprising herself with it, and Vala gives her an odd look, "you could come with us."

Ikrie stares at her in surprise, and Vala nods at once. "We don't abandon each other," she says, rather fiercely, and Aloy thinks that she takes it to heart the most, out of the three of them. "We stick together and look after each other."

"I--" Ikrie says, then falls silent. It's several long moments before she speaks again, and Aloy listens to the wind howling through the glacier. "I think... I would like to be alone for a while. But if I wanted to take you up on the offer..." she looks a little vulnerable, a little hopeful then, and it makes Aloy think that maybe she will take them up on it after all, when her grief has receded, "where would I find you?"

"We'll be in the Cut for a while yet," Aloy says, and she doesn't know when 'a week or so' got so long and meandering -- or why that fails to bother her. "Ask around Song's Edge."

After Ikrie is gone, no one says anything right away. They move to harvest machine parts and take stock of whatever damage the fight left them with. Aloy holds the Stormslinger close and discreetly tries to strap it back into place, but Vala's eyes have a habit of following her, and Aloy feels it the second Vala's attention locks on her.

"What are you hiding there?" Vala asks suspiciously.

Aloy sighs and pulls the Stormslinger forth again. One of the cables has just enough of a slash through it to hamper the use of the weapon, and Vala laughs again, cutting through the melancholy that lingers in the air. "I can fix this myself," Aloy says defensively, because mending or replacing a cable is something a child could do, but Vala shakes a finger at her.

"No way," she says, as Varl chuckles quietly. "We have _all_ been careless with weapons we barely know how to use, and that includes you. We bring them back to Varga together."

And in Longnotch once more, Varga's eyes bulge when they come trekking back, and she clucks her tongue over the weapons with parental concern. "What did you do to my girls?"

* * *

Varga tells them that her father has been looking for Aloy, and back in Song's Edge, Burgrend asks them to track down three Banuk hunters who owe him some machine parts. It leads to another series of fights, but they take out the last of the control towers in the region that had remained active even with HEPHAESTUS retreated. When at last all of the parts are obtained, they hunker down for the night around low fires, rather than brave the wilds in the dark when they're all tired and bruised.

Urkai, Tatai, and Tulemak are still arguing over what to name their werak, until at last Aloy, with a surprising amount of patience, sets the matter to rest by guiding them to a decision that honors their fallen friend. She seems more relaxed, Vala notes, feeling it in the looseness of Aloy's arms as Vala leans back against her and stares at the fire. Only the shivers keep Aloy tense, and she soon falls into her usual grumbling as the talk dies down.

"I miss the Sundom," Aloy says plaintively. "It's so warm there. I never appreciated it."

"You said it!" Urkai calls out, and Tatai immediately shushes him.

"Can't you see that people are trying to sleep?" she hisses in a whisper that's not at all quiet, nodding to Tulemak, who has already drifted off and who starts a bit at the noise. Tatai waves a hand in Aloy and Vala's direction. "And maybe they wanna be alone, huh?"

Vala doesn't need to see Aloy's face to know that she's blushing. "Can we all be quiet now?" Aloy snaps back irritably.

Silence falls once more, as the other two hunters sheepishly settle in for the night and Varl continues his watch nearby. Vala smiles as she leans a little further back, pressing herself against Aloy, who doesn't seem inclined to sleep yet. Aloy tends to run on a worryingly little amount of rest, but Vala isn't going to push the issue tonight. She's too drowsy and content, and Aloy's arms are too warm and comfortable.

"See?" Vala murmurs. "I told you this was all a good idea."

Aloy shifts behind her, and the blanket that they're wrapped in rustles. "... Yeah," she says. "You were right. Happy?"

"As a bee in spring," Vala says cheerfully. "It's good to relax sometimes."

Aloy snorts. " _How_ many fights have we been in lately?"

"Yeah, but none of them were to save the world," Vala says, and she wraps her fingers around the hands that Aloy has wrapped around her. "And I'm here for that too, you know. I've got your back."

Aloy's breath against her hair isn't quite steady. She's silent for a few long moments, as the fire crackles and the wind whistles in the absence of talk. But here, sheltered between thickets of trees, the worst of night's chill can't reach them. "I don't know how long it's going to take," Aloy says at last. "Or where I'll end up going. Are you sure you want to commit to that?"

"Aloy," Vala says, and she watches the fire flicker beyond her feet, feels the warmth of Aloy's hands under her own, "there is no greater thing a brave can do than this. Than... fixing the world and the Goddess. I wouldn't miss it for anything. And I don't know about Varl, but... I know he's got your back too."

"That's right," Varl's voice says, and Vala lifts her head to see him drifting closer through the trees as he makes a round on his watch. He looks almost as miserable as Aloy in the cold, shivering even through the Banuk clothing in which they've bedecked themselves, and Vala is seized with a sudden rush of affection for both of them. "Whatever you need, we can help."

"Yeah," Vala says, and she lifts a hand and gestures to Varl. "So get in here and warm up. We're not sleeping just yet."

Varl hesitates, but another powerful shiver rocks through him as a gust of wind sneaks through the trees, and then he wastes little time in huddling up as close to them as he can. Aloy adjust the blanket to wrap him in it too, and Vala leans back against both of them with a contented little sigh.

"Thanks, guys," Aloy says, and if her voice sounds a little thicker than usual, Vala makes no comment on it. "I still don't know what we're doing next, so... I'll get back to you on that."

Vala smiles at the fire, at the sight of the other three hunters huddled nearby in their own little werak, at the snow-covered forest around them, wreathed in night's cold shadows and so different from the Sacred Land. But the warmth shared by three people is greater, and she hardly notices the cold anymore. "We'll be here."


End file.
